Providore Farm owner Zac Jeffries to offer educational farm tours

Providore Farm owner Zac Jeffries will soon step back from his role at Portland's Bayview College to focus on his expanding poultry and beef farm in Narrawong.

Mr Jeffries said he planned to engage school groups and the wider community in hopes to educate visitors about the importance of sustainable agricultural practices.

"I'm going through a process with Parks Victoria to be a licensed tour operator in order to conduct tours not only on our farm but in the forest around it as well," he said.

"I'm an outdoor education teacher by trade - we want to educate others about the connection between our farming practices and the health of the forest nearby."

Mr Jeffries explained the site of his operations - on one of the highest points in the district - pushed him to be particularly eco-conscious.

"If we were using a lot of chemicals on our farm, that would damage the nearby forest so we're completely chemical-free," he said.

"The farming venture we run with our chickens is also on a rotational system, so the chooks are never in one spot for too long. That would cause a manure build-up causing the land to become acidic and too nutrient-dense - that runs off into nearby water courses which is a damaging thing.

"We also use exclusion fencing around our property which keeps kangaroos off as opposed to shooting. We make sure everything we do on the farm promotes biology and healthy species of bacteria and fungi on our pastures which in turn has a positive impact on the forest around us.

"Promoting environmental health through our farming practices hopefully results in other people making more environmentally friendly choices in their own lives as well."

To do that, Mr Jeffries said he recently purchased a six-seat, side-by-side vehicle from the Warrnambool Surf Life Saving Club.

"We really wanted to do the tours in a vehicle rather than on-foot," he said.

"An ad came up on Facebook marketplace from WSLSC to buy theirs, so I jumped on it straight away.

"We explained to them the family connection and what our goal was which they liked. Some of the money from the purchase went towards the Nippers program for this year which we thought was cool as well."

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